My new FX Dreamline Tactical Squirrel HFT Gun arrived Friday afternoon, I drove to Bristol yesterday morning to do some shooting at BAGA and was talked into shooting my first ever HFT Match, I mounted my Hawke Airmax Compact 6-24X50 Scope, did a quick zero at 50 yards... Someone explained the rules to me, I didn't think my rifle was suitable for this type of shooting, all of the other shooters were shooting .177 rifles... Next thing the RO is asking if I was going to shoot in the competition, I explained my Dreamline Tac was .22 and probably shooting way too fast, the RO brought out a chronometer and said if I can dial it down to maybe 800 FPS that I could shoot in the competition, my Dream Tac was shooting about 870 FPS on Max, I turned down the power adjuster to 3 and my speed dropped to 815 FPS, the RO did a quick calculation and said I was ok to shoot the course...
Another shooter set me up with a set of "shooting sticks" and someone else a "bucket" and cushion, I have never used them before, "sticks and bucket" they called it... I was paired up with a gentleman shooting a .177 FX Crown, I was handed a score card and off we went to shoot the course...Having never shot in any type of organized competition and only seeing the HFT course once before I wasn't sure how it was done with some 18 shooters, my shooting partner and I started at "Lane 1" with the other paired shooters starting on the other "lanes"... The course is quite challenging, it's all in a heavily wooded area and the sunlight and shadows make it even more challenging...
I didn't expect to do very well at all having never done this type of shooting... So with a brand new rifle straight out of the box, a quick and dirty zeroing of my scope on some "Shoot N See" targets (I didn't even reset my turrets to zero) my rifle was zeroed for 50 yards and I figured I'd just try to do the best I can... I was there to have some fun and enjoy the company of others for the day... I didn't have "range cards" or any rifle dope for my scope... What's a range card...???
Some of the targets on the course had target openings as small as 3/8", quite challenging... One was a snake another a mouse... I hit the snake with my first shot, missed the second, my fault...!!! I hit the mouse twice... Yay me... There was one kneeling lane and one offhand lane, I hit one of the kneeling targets and felt lucky to even hit the metal of one of the off hand targets (I never could shoot offhand)...
Anyhoo, I had a great time, the gentleman I was paired with came in 3rd place in our class (Hunter)… I think I cleaned two or three lanes, in the end I was very happy to come in 5th place among some really good shooters... I shot 29 out of 56... Not too shabby for an old blind guy with a broken back...
It was great fun, I would suggest to anyone give it a try, have some fun and you will meet some great people...
I'm looking into a .177 barrel kit for my FX Crown, I think it will be better suited to this type of shooting... I need to find a "bucket and sticks"... I want to do this again...
I just thought I'd share... Ken
Another shooter set me up with a set of "shooting sticks" and someone else a "bucket" and cushion, I have never used them before, "sticks and bucket" they called it... I was paired up with a gentleman shooting a .177 FX Crown, I was handed a score card and off we went to shoot the course...Having never shot in any type of organized competition and only seeing the HFT course once before I wasn't sure how it was done with some 18 shooters, my shooting partner and I started at "Lane 1" with the other paired shooters starting on the other "lanes"... The course is quite challenging, it's all in a heavily wooded area and the sunlight and shadows make it even more challenging...
I didn't expect to do very well at all having never done this type of shooting... So with a brand new rifle straight out of the box, a quick and dirty zeroing of my scope on some "Shoot N See" targets (I didn't even reset my turrets to zero) my rifle was zeroed for 50 yards and I figured I'd just try to do the best I can... I was there to have some fun and enjoy the company of others for the day... I didn't have "range cards" or any rifle dope for my scope... What's a range card...???
Some of the targets on the course had target openings as small as 3/8", quite challenging... One was a snake another a mouse... I hit the snake with my first shot, missed the second, my fault...!!! I hit the mouse twice... Yay me... There was one kneeling lane and one offhand lane, I hit one of the kneeling targets and felt lucky to even hit the metal of one of the off hand targets (I never could shoot offhand)...
Anyhoo, I had a great time, the gentleman I was paired with came in 3rd place in our class (Hunter)… I think I cleaned two or three lanes, in the end I was very happy to come in 5th place among some really good shooters... I shot 29 out of 56... Not too shabby for an old blind guy with a broken back...
It was great fun, I would suggest to anyone give it a try, have some fun and you will meet some great people...
I'm looking into a .177 barrel kit for my FX Crown, I think it will be better suited to this type of shooting... I need to find a "bucket and sticks"... I want to do this again...
I just thought I'd share... Ken
